Thursday ride. Everything hurts.

Today was the weekly Thursday training ride from Westwood Velo for various Finkrafters. Ordinarily, that would be enough of a description, but then how would I spend the rest of my evening?

It started poorly for me. I overslept. There was traffic on the highway on the way down. I didn't really sleep all that well. I was whiney. I was going to try to keep the whineyness to myself, but in the event the ride went poorly for me, I had to start the spin right away.

I pulled up to the Flying Fin's house, and Chatty young Evan and his Fin-ness were standing outside in the rain. Did I remember to say it was raining? More whine. I kitted up and we took off towards the store. I could only find one glove. Whine. Meeting us there was 12T Mark, some guy named Mike and "I am a mountain biker, do you have a problem with that" Jim. Fun all around. I resisted the urge to whine.

We headed up towards Bear Mountain. The rain had stopped but I was still whining as now I could complain about being overdressed. Aren't I fun? We were doing okay until the 130# kid decided to show his climbing prowess on 9W. Darn kids. I whined.

We made it into the park and started our speedy ascent of the Perkins Memorial Drive. It was actually kinda neat as a fog had rolled in and we were almost riding blind. The Fin mentioned that the summit was snowed in. I assumed he was kidding. I was doing great until I started to get a bit overheated and my head was hot and I was sweating. I was only wearing a thin cap under my helmet. I was soon dropped by my ride mates. I was too tired to whine this time.

At the top I stopped and took off my helmet to cool off and found the other glove trapped inside the cap. Explains why it didnt fit right and why I was so hot. It was soaked with sweat. Not pretty.

We turned around and headed home through the thriving metropolis of Haverstraw. We did speed work. The rain returned. The kid went uphill fast. Finally, that Mike guy says: are we there yet? Almost. At the end, 4:22. Good stuff. Pretty steady and a great workout. You should have been there. I was happy with my ride. The whining stopped.

BTW: my hands hurt from not wearing gloves. Whine.